part of the reason i was laughing is i'm one of those people that actuallly likes HI.most of my bamboo rods are montgomery wards sport kings,i love and collect them,even though they're not "collectable."most sport king bamboo rods were made by HI.

Well, I only own 1 boo rod, and have casted several. No expert by any means, but enough to get a feel and get my feet wet in the world of boo. Mine is a dreamcatcher. It is my most cherished rod. It is not my most used rod, however it does see plenty of use, and when it does it is for performance characteristics moreso than nostalgia. I see most boo rods as specialists, they can be made to specialize in a certain application and do it well but I've not seen one that is proficient in the range of applications of most graphite rods. I will also say that some of you might be suprised at how fast/powerful some boo rods can be. Yeah, they're naturally a bit slower, and I don't know if any match the fastest of the graphite world. But there are some that would be considered medium-fast in the world of graphite.

There's a bigger difference between various tapers in bamboo than there is between various makes and models of graphite. Thats just the way I see it.

As far as silk line. I casted a friends rod with silk once, just in the grass. I was amazed, just astounded. It cast like a dream. Thought about getting one, till I weighed all the maintenance necessary and decided I'd ruin that line in no time flat. Even if it is better, no thanks. I don't even do as much maintenance on my plastic lines as I should, they get a yearly cleaning and thats about it.

I have a bunch of silk lines, though no Terenzios (yet). I mostly use plastics though. As gene says, maintenance is no big deal. It's probably a sin, but I use silicones as well as the red tin Mucilin; and the lines float ON the water, tip and all, not IN the water as do all the plastics, even the ones with microballoons.

This makes a difference if you roll cast pickup and like to mend without inducing microdrag. The thin diameter makes the line cut through the air better. When I switch back to plastic, the line feels like it's floating around in the air above and behind me, which is a bit unsettling and makes me less certain where my backcast is.

I dry out the lines on the way home by stripping it out on my back seat.

I'm ecumenical with rod substrates, since I like plastics (glass old and new as well, in addition to a mess of real borons - not just the ones marketed as such by Winston [not a knock since they are my favorite production rod maker in cane, glass and graphites]). There are many more taper possibilities with cane since a maker doesn't have to worry about pulling the mandrel out of a hollow tube, so cane can produce a much wider range of sensuous actions.

I consider my canes MORE durable than hollow plastic tubes, most especially the super fast Generation XXX's - these I love to cast, but they are not as good in the main as ffishing, especially catching and landing, instruments. If I'm floating in a boat with a metal gunwale, I will not use a high modulus graphite - this is the realm of Hexagraphs or the old Fenwicks and Orvii that were built like tanks.

To illustrate the catchability factor, I was Tricoing this last few weeks, and one session with an 8'3wt Loomis IMX would deliver only about a 50% landing rate, while the 7'6" 3wt hollow hex Sigman landed the first eight (have to check my tape for the rest of the results - the would-be ninth decided my tippet belonged in a logpile and my mind got distracted on some other metrics).

BTW, both silk lines and the right bamboo rods have an ineffable feel that plastics just do not have, even Russ Peaks or those from the many incredibly fine modern makers.

mrflyfish wrote:Dave,So how did if fish? Did you land any Steel on the boo?Must have been a blast.Mr

Can I assume you were asking me and about the rod that Joe E loaned me? I haven't visited this thread for awhile.

Yea, it was a blast, but at first I was nervous. I think I was the first person to ever fish with that rod and I was afraid of breaking it. Yea, I was nervous. Remember, I never even met Joe. He contacted me through this site and shipped it to me.

Anyway... my honest evaluation of the rod.

I had been using graphite for steelhead, so it took me awhile to get used to that rod because it was really slow action, even for bamboo.

The first few times I used it, I was experimenting with different lines. If memory serves me, Joe wanted me to try different lines and give him my opinion on what line I thought worked best. I think Joe originally suggested it was about a 6 weight. The thing with bamboo is that you can build two different rods with the same taper and they can have different feel. it's not an exact science nor should it be. I tried a 6DT and felt it was too light. I didn't like the feel at all. Then again, I might have simply not been waiting long enough for the back cast. Did I mention the rod was slow. I never could get it to load the way I like with the 6 DT. I switched to a 7DT, and that was better (IMO). It loaded sooner. I liked it better. I then tried an 8WF. It was actually a bass taper. I liked it the best, but backed off to the 7DT for fear of overloading or breaking the rod. After using the 7DT for awhile, and slowing down even more... I thought it was best.

Anyway, once I got used to it, and seriously started trying to catch fish... I hooked a half dozen or so until I finally landed one, and I think that ended up being the last cast I took with that rod.

I'm sure Joe would have let me keep it longer, but it was getting late in the season. Besides, iI figured if I kept it much longer it might start to grow roots, if you know what I mean.

I probably would have stayed and caught more that day, but it was going to get dark in another half hour or so and only had time for a couple more casts. Did I mention how slow that rod was.

No pictures of that one, but I do have a few pictures around of other steelhead I caught with my own bamboo rods. Bamboo holds up fine, especially if it is well built like thaat one clearly is.

I like to think I gave Joe his start.

I still prefer bamboo, and none of my own bamboo rods are new. In fact the newest one is older than me.